The need for food containers in early human communities led to the
“invention” of basketry. The first baskets may have been made of animal
skin or twigs; but soon evolved into the use of more suitable materials
such as vegetable fibres. Because of the organic materials used in
making baskets, most of the earliest examples have been lost through
decay. A few examples have been preserved but only in areas of extremely
dry climate, such as in Egypt, in Chile and Peru in South America, and
in the southwestern United States. Radiocarbon tests of woven artifacts
establish the existence and the use of baskets in Nevada, Utah and
Oregon as early as 9000 to 700 B.C., and that Egyptians of the
pre-dynastic period (c. 5000 B.C.) used baskets. Early literary sources,
such as the Bible, mention baskets and other woven articles such as the
“ark of bulrushes” in which the infant Moses was hidden (Exod. 2: 3,
53); baskets were used to bring the tithes to the temple, and Matthew
talked of “twelve baskets full.” (Matt. 14: 20.)
In the study of American Indian baskets there are three major factors to
be considered: the first is the tribe which produced the basket; the
second is the language, since inter-marriage among tribes produced
varying cultures; the third factor is the weave of the basket itself.
For example, the five major weaves used by American Indians are: Coil,
Twine, Twill, Wicker and Imbricated. To the novice there is the obvious
difference in shape, color and texture of a collection of Indian baskets
viewed in a museum. To the collector there is the hint of the whole
pattern of life of the Indians who produced the basket.
The materials used in any particular basket reflect the locale of the
tribe which produced it, for the Indian used materials that were at
hand. In the case of the _Cherokees_, a native variety of red honey
suckle produced runners that were used by that tribe in Virginia in a
wicker-type weave. In North Carolina, the same tribe utilized the
Japanese honeysuckle, while in Oklahoma the tribe used buckbrush
runners. In Arizona, the _Pimas_ wove split willow twigs and the black
Martyna or “Devil’s Claw” of their desert lands.
It is the Indian woman, not the man, who makes baskets (except for few
instances, i.e., the _Papago_ carrying basket). They are made either for
utilitarian use or for ceremonial use. Basket designs are not taught to
the craftsman nor are they copied from a pattern book. They are created
by the individual weaver who is an artist of great ability. The
artist-craftsman must first develop a manner of weaving that will form a
shape adequate for the basket’s final use. She must then find suitable
materials in her area for this weaving project. This step completed, she
mentally creates a decorative design and invents a method of weaving it
into the basket.
It is known that all North American Indian tribes, at some time in their
history, made and used baskets. However, the finest and most decorative
baskets were made about the middle of the 19th century, in the
Northwest, down the Pacific Coast states and into the Southwest through
Arizona and New Mexico.
In 1935 there were more than five hundred _Pima_ Indians making baskets
for their own use. Now there are less than six good weavers on that
reservation. Today _Papago_ Indians make some baskets for tourist trade,
but not nearly as many as they made a few years ago. The _Hopi_ Indians
bring a few baskets to market places, but there are fewer and fewer each
year. For example: at the 1964 Inter-Tribal Indian Ceremonials, Gallup,
New Mexico, there were forty classifications in the basketry
competition—baskets were submitted to only twenty-seven classifications.
There are some basket weavers among other tribes but for the most part,
few tribes today may be called “basket makers.”
The influence of other culture groups upon the craft of basket weaving
is so great that each year fewer baskets are produced by the regular
weavers. The Indian women have learned that they can secure mass
produced articles as a substitute for baskets. Only two percent of the
types of baskets included in this collection are now being made. It is
quite probable that by the year 2000 there will be NO Indian baskets
being woven.